Weather and fish cooperated in 57th annualAnglers Club tournament...WITH SLIDE SHOW

By KIP TABB

The
Cape Hatteras Anglers Club Invitational Surf Fishing Tournament bills
itself as the largest in the world, and with 120 six-person teams, it
would be hard to deny the claim.

Club President Larry Hardham
does point out that assertion has never been confirmed by Guinness
World Records, and after hearing the Guinness criteria for counting all
the teams and all the anglers, the thought comes that the two-day
tournament would be over before the counting could be done.

For
a number of years the tournament had 100 teams but when the Anglers
Club learned the largest surf competition in the world, according to
Guinness, was in Norway with 697 participants, that tipped the scales
to adding more teams.

“We used that as a reason to increase to 120 teams,” Hardham says.

The
tournament was down a team this year. One team had a last-minute
emergency, and there wasn’t time for a team on the waiting list to get
to Hatteras.

The annual tournament— this was the 57th
competition—is a two-day affair almost always scheduled the Thursday
and Friday before the first full weekend of November. There is an
exception based on when Halloween falls, but that doesn’t happen very
often.

The fishing was good this year; not record-setting like
it was nine or ten years ago, but certainly better than it has been for
the past two or three years. With a calm ocean and mild temperatures,
Thursday was the better day, but teams were finding fish on Friday as
well.

Although there were not as many fish reeled in on
Friday, there was still some good action. The largest fish of the
tournament, a 37-1/4-inch red drum, was landed that morning by Phil
Fitzpatrick with the Ocean City (N.J.) Beach Buggy Association, south
of the Point.

The weather was just about perfect both
days—Thursday was mild and mostly cloudy, but the front held off coming
through until late at night and early morning, so Friday was a cool
autumn day with a good breeze from the north and not a cloud in the sky.

It
hasn’t always been like that. When Hurricane Irene came through in 2011
and severed Highway 12 on Pea Island, the Anglers Club still held the
tournament. Ninety-seven teams still managed to make it to Hatteras for
the event that year.

“They’re doing it because they love it,” is Larry’s explanation.

Putting
the tournament on is a huge undertaking. In addition to the 714 anglers
and 119 teams, there are judges and support staff at the Anglers Club.
There are also gift certificates and winning prize packages for the top
teams and individual performances. And there was the special trip to
Hampton Roads to get the Girl Scout candy order the Club placed in all
the welcome gift baskets.

In addition to the two-day
tournament, the Angler’s Club also sponsors the Bob Bernard Open
Individual Tournament, a one-day open tournament on Saturday.

The
competition was really tight this year, with any one of the top five
team finishers within striking distance of taking first place with one
good catch.